Virulent Swipe

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Legality

Format Legality
1v1 Commander Legal
Archenemy Legal
Block Constructed Legal
Canadian Highlander Legal
Casual Legal
Commander / EDH Legal
Commander: Rule 0 Legal
Custom Legal
Duel Commander Legal
Highlander Legal
Legacy Legal
Leviathan Legal
Limited Legal
Modern Legal
Oathbreaker Legal
Pauper Legal
Pauper Duel Commander Legal
Pauper EDH Legal
Planechase Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Tiny Leaders Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Virulent Swipe

Instant

Target creature gets +2/+0 and gains deathtouch until end of turn.

Rebound (If you cast this spell from your hand, exile it as it resolves. At the beginning of your next upkeep, you may cast this card from exile without paying its mana cost.)

wallisface on Demonic Sacrifice

1 year ago

Some thoughts:

  • your mana curve is very high, and your land count is very low. I would suggest limiting yourself to only 4 cards that cost 4-or-more mana, and going up to 23 lands.

  • a bunch of your creatures aren’t helping you control the board. Deathgreeter only gains you life, and Mortician Beetle only gets bigger. I would focus on better payoffs for things dying. For example, Mayhem Devil would thrive in a deck like this.

  • I’d suggest ditching both of Virulent Swipe and Murder. Black has enough awesome killspells that you should never need to spend 3 mana for one. And Swipe feels redundant here with your existing amount of killspells.

wallisface on Hidetsugu Shakedown (Ogre tribal!)

1 year ago

Some thoughts:

TheVectornaut on Who dat boi - please help

2 years ago

Hey, I saw your comment. Is this an alternate account for twechsler or is this deck just inspired by theirs? Either way, I'll go into greater depth on some possible build paths. libraryjoy is correct in that if you're (mostly) mono-green, your best way to destroy creatures is often to take advantage of the abilities on your own creatures. You already have the deathtouch style shell so I'd just focus on that. But even with deathtouch, there are a fair number of options for guaranteeing that damage gets dealt. There are the bow/staff cards like I use in my artifact commander deck A Pile of Cans with the deathtouch from Sydri, Galvanic Genius . Then there's fight effects which you can see working with Wren's Run Packmaster in my wolfless wolf deck Size of the Fight in the Dog (although this strategy doesn't require DT if your creatures have high enough power). A final approach is forced combat damage. Since it's been mentioned the least, that's what I'll focus on here.

Forced block cards like Lure , Gift of the Deity , Indrik Umbra , Ochran Assassin , Roar of Challenge , Tempting Licid , Provoke , Irresistible Prey , or Tangle Angler are the core of such a deck. Most of these cards are rather costly in terms of CMC, and I'd consequently only recommend such a deck for slower casual play. It should be pretty strong in creature-heavy metas though. If that sounds reasonable, the next thing you have to decide on are the creatures and supporting cards. These choices aren't always obvious because of the many things a deck like this wants. For example, it may be better to play cheap deathtouch creatures like Deathcap Cultivator , Gifted Aetherborn , Narnam Renegade , Wasteland Viper , and Nightshade Peddler so you can start controlling the board sooner. But if all your DT creatures have low power, they'll only be able to kill 1 or 2 things off a big forced block. Thus, it may be better to instead grant deathtouch with other cards like Basilisk Collar , Deadly Allure , Virulent Swipe , Bow of Nylea , Archetype of Finality , or Ohran Frostfang . Then, you could just run creatures with high attack for their cost. Still, I think there's something to be said of looking for other abilities that interact well with deathtouch. First strike and double strike are the most obvious examples because they can let your creatures survive combat to attack all over again on later turns. Viridian Claw , Glissa, the Traitor , and Grappling Hook see play in such decks for this reason. Alternatively, you can learn from the synergy of the Frostfang that abilities triggering on face damage pair well with deathtouch. Only a fool would block your 1/1 DT with their 3/3, but if that 1/1 is drawing you a card, suddenly that trade sounds more appealing. Cold-Eyed Selkie , Dimir Cutpurse , Edric, Spymaster of Trest , Oakhame Adversary , Ohran Viper , Tomebound Lich , Fynn, the Fangbearer , and Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons are some cards that might fill this role.

I know I've just rattled off a lot of cards here. I'll try putting together a casual deck to demonstrate what I'm talking about when I find the time.

As an aside, I see that you've included Novablast Wurm as the only meaningful white spell in this version of the deck. It's too slow to see play in anything but ramp, but it can definitely be built around as a beefy Wrath of God too. Consider using something like Heroic Intervention or a Dauntless Escort sacrifice to break the symmetry on the board wipe. Also, creatures that grant boons on death like Thragtusk or Wurmcoil Engine could find a home in a self-wipe deck, although the Wurm might be outclassed then by something more traditional like Austere Command , Settle the Wreckage , Kindred Dominance , or Phyrexian Rebirth .

Apollo_Paladin on Rat Attack!

3 years ago

For mono-black, Castle Locthwain is a fairly common one to toss a couple copies of. There's not much in the way of mono-black card draw, and at a glance that's what I see being the biggest constraint. Getting things out quickly can be nice, but against a control deck your creatures won't last long and then you'll be stuck Topdecking.

You might look at some early 1-mana Discard options to further play into your strategy/theme. Thoughtseize is by far the most common (and best) choice for this, but it can also be quite expensive to purchase singles of.

Other less costly options (albeit with more restrictions/conditions) for 1-mana discard spells are Duress or Specter's Shriek.

The newly released Mind Drain is vastly superior to Mind Rot, and is literally identical in its casting cost and card type; just an upgraded version.

I have a mono-black Hand Hate deck which I play regularly on MTGA online, and I've found Davriel, Rogue Shadowmage to be an excellent card to include. He serves beautifully as guaranteed damage per turn in longer games once the hands are cleared out, and he also provides a mana-free discard option for multiple turns while he's in play early so that you can keep the pressure on the opponent.

I have won numerous games on the back of Davriel, just by having enough creatures in play to act as stalemate blockers and then just keeping the opponent's hand empty and letting him tick each turn. Stalemate blockers can be amazing, and he's only a few cents to order singles of.

Drainpipe Vermin can be a useful 1-drop which would play into both your Rat and Discard mechanics, and it pairs very well when sacrificed to Nezumi Bone-Reader.

Ravenous Rats is an identical card functionally to Burglar Rat, in case you find this a useful card and wish to rebuild to include more than 4 of them by including both types.

Other neat suggestions you might want to try (depending on how this playtests) are Rancid Rats, Ratcatcher and/or Marrow-Gnawer

Beyond that, you mentioned Instants - I'd suggest control options even if they're cheap ones like Murder or Unmake (in case Indestructible is a thing you run into frequently) to handle things your Rats can't take care of straight away. There's also other permanents like Basilisk Collar which could make your weakling rats a real blocking threat, and it has a cheap enough Equip cost that you can attack with it on a creature, and typically afford to move it to an untapped Blocker immediately after. If the collar is too expensive or you don't like the Equip cost on it, you could go an Instant route with things like Deadly Allure, Lash of Thorns, Virulent Swipe, or Touch of Moonglove.

Even if none of these suggestions help, I like your build! +1

TheVectornaut on Searing Infection

3 years ago

Rakdos infect is pretty tough to work around, but you have some cool things going on here. i'd try to have as few creatures above 2 CMC as possible. Hand of the Praetors is strong enough as a finisher in slow games, but the rats should probably be Plague Stinger and possibly Vector Asp. Budget permitting, Inkmoth Nexus is a fairly obvious upgrade. I'd also try to lower the cost on your instants and sorceries. This is especially helpful when playing around Livewire Lash (which should probably be at 4 copies). Reckless Charge, Assault Strobe, Brute Force, Virulent Swipe, and Temur Battle Rage are all options that work better with Lash than Footfall Crater, Dirge of Dread, and Memory Leak. Ways to protect your infect creatures can be very helpful, especially after sideboarding. Apostle's Blessing is probably the best in your colors. I really like Outmaneuver and Soul's Fire as ways to take advantage of infect in red. If you're willing to splash other colors, Wild Defiance provides nice redundancy for the equipment, not to mention the other benefits of having green in the deck.

Anyway, good luck with the deck!

Kyle_Winter on Kelsien and Friends!

3 years ago

DemMeowsephs, thank you again for providing suggestions on one of my decks! I will go with your advice and try to work in more lands to reach that 33-35 range. Any amount of land below 40 is going to be difficult to overcome.

I'm not sure what you mean by not enough artifacts for Spire of Industry, I have a total of 22 in the deck! Not only that, I have a few cards with the intention of bringing out more artifacts. Since I'm trying to voltron with the simplest of artifacts giving me deathtouch I don't see the reason to not include Spire of Industry if it's a nearly guaranteed way of getting there? If nothing else, it still taps for a colorless! As for Path of Ancestry, since the deck is tri-color I wanted lands that could tap for 3 mana, and even if the scry doesn't go off every time I still have the option for all 3 of my commander's colors. You pretty much included Nomad Outpost in the exclusion list for the same reason, so I'd like to know your reasoning and see what I'm missing in terms of sacrificing a 3-color option land for a 2-color option land? Buried Ruin is my backup in case any of my key artifacts get dumpstered, which is likely since they're badass. I think I'd rather keep Mistveil Plains instead of a plain plains just for the utility of possible recursion. If I were to take it out it would be replaced with Elixir of Immortality... which is a GREAT idea thanks for the insight lol. I can see taking out Temple of the False God due to my lack of X cost spells, high cost spells, and the inclusion of Ancient Tomb already.

**_All-in-All, I think I will make the following edits:

_ Remove:**

Grimoire of the Dead // Virulent Swipe // Primevals' Glorious Rebirth // Mountain // Swamp // Scavenger Grounds // Mistveil Plains

Add:

City of Brass // Forbidden Orchard (Holy Sh*t the syngergy!) // Prismatic Vista // Arid Mesa // Marsh Flats // Bloodstained Mire // Elixir of Immortality

What do you think, DemMeowsephs?

lavafrogy on Bouncer at a TITI bar

4 years ago

what about rebound cards like Distortion Strike or Virulent Swipe that would benefit swiftspear and TITI

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